Fig City News: Candidate Interview with Linda Swain
Newton, MA - September 8, 2025 - Ed. Note: During August, Fig City News conducted interviews with each of the 10 School Committee candidates who are running in competitive elections. This notice was sent to all candidates prior to the interviews. All interviews were completed before any were published.
Your campaign cites your background with Newton North Boosters and the Cabot after-school program. What caused you to take those experiences and decide to run for School Committee?
I’ve actually wanted to run for School Committee for a long time, and I had talked to a number of folks back when my kids were at Cabot, and at the time, I just decided I did not have time. So fast forward to this year, when my youngest graduated from Newton North, and I decided I did have the time. What really drove me to run is I have witnessed first-hand, through my kids, the Newton Public Schools for the past 15 years, and I am truly proud of what I’ve seen, but I’m also concerned.
What are some of those concerns?
My overarching concern is that I would like us to bring back the excellence in education that so many of us, including myself, moved to the city for. Our job as a school system is to enable every student to reach their potential, and I would like to help make a difference in that. Additional concerns are around the multi-level classrooms and the budget, which of course is another big one.
When you say you define excellence as having every student reach their potential, could you elaborate on that? How is that measured or assessed?
I think that is a great question, and for me, excellence means that every NPS student is reaching their full potential. So, for one kid, that could mean that they get into the top college and they’re prepared for that. And for another student, it might mean they are entering their career right after graduation and they’re prepared for that. Someone else might be pursuing the arts and they’re prepared for that. I don’t pretend to think measuring excellence is easy. One idea is: Could we conduct post-graduation surveys with students and their families? Certainly, MCAS could be a part of it. And college acceptance rates, as well as any post-secondary success in any career and technical educational outcomes for kids pursuing the trades. So I think all of those things could be elements in how we measure excellence. NPS has also defined five different elements in their Portrait of a Learner. If we could somehow match up measuring excellence with those five elements, I think it would be terrific.
You also highlight on your campaign website, collaborative cross-functional team networks and data-driven decision making as part of your skill set. How would those translate to being on the School Committee?
Well, I think, our current chair, Chris Breski, has done a formidable job at really guiding the School Committee on using data to drive decisions and student outcomes. I would like to continue in that direction. I think, especially as I have been meeting with community members, each of us have our own opinions about every topic out there. But at the end of the day, we need to make sure that decisions are based on data and student outcomes, rather than just our own opinion.
I think the collaboration skills come into play both working with colleagues on the School Committee, and also branching beyond that to include our teachers, the union, and our community. I know there’s been some working groups today that have helped by that collaborative approach, and I’d like to continue that. The cross-functional team that I’m thinking of now is with the teachers and School Committee, and perhaps one idea would be to add the parent community to that.
You said that Chris Brezski did a good job incorporating data into decision making. Can you share an example of that, that you would look to continue?
A clear example is Chris first started getting involved in NPS and the effort to use [science] data to get our kids back in the classroom when we were in the midst of COVID.
What were your views on the budget process last spring, and how do they inform your actions if you’re on the School Committee going forward?
The school budget is a critical component for the success of our schools, and I think the work that Superintendent Nolin and Chris Brezski did in communicating to the community where we stand – and having a clear budget set with different kinds of outcomes identified – was excellent. It helped educate the broader community about where things stood. So if I am elected, I would love to leverage the great work that they did and continue down that path of keeping the community fully versed on exactly where our finances stand in the future.
Within the budget, one of the items on your campaign website is exploring creative approaches to funding deferred maintenance. What are some creative approaches that may not be currently getting used?
The capital improvements that we need to continue to make across the district are vast, and we’ve made tremendous strides, and we need to continue down that path. Creative approaches to financing might help us, it could be in the context of both the overall school budget as well as specific capital improvements. There are partnerships that we could develop, such as with local businesses in the area that are interested in having that connection point to our students. Or even some sort of public/private partnership could potentially be a pathway to address our challenges in capital improvement projects.
What is a public/private partnership, and how could that be used to fund large maintenance amounts or capital improvement plans in NPS?
A public/private partnership can mean many different things, but in the broadest sense of the term a ‘P3’ is essentially an arrangement between a public entity, like Newton Public Schools, and a private enterprise, the details of which may be very complex, and we need to figure out a solution that works best for Newton. Every P3 is different. I am aware of one school district in Prince George County, Maryland that used a P3 to help fund the rebuilding of a number of elementary schools in their district, and I think that we could explore the opportunity. It could take the length of this interview to go into the details of it, but the broad stroke is partnering with a private entity and structuring arrangements so that ultimately we get our capital improvement projects completed.
What was your experience during the teachers strike and what lessons did you take from it? What, if you’re elected, would inform your views on preventing another one?
The teachers strike was awful for the community. It was awful for my family. Having kids out of school for 11 days was really tough. With special needs support not happening, with high-school transcripts not being sent to colleges in time, it was a difficult, difficult time, not to mention the relationships and the trust that was broken. I would bring forward that the kids need to be in school. Attendance is the bare-bones success factor for kids. We need to have our kids in school. Having said that, there was so much trust broken during that process. That’s why I think the work that was done this spring regarding the budget was so important. Trust, tone, and transparency matter.
The bulk of the added NPS funding was known to exist prior to the strike, which became the Education Stabilization Fund. During the strike, only an incremental amount of new funding was allocated. Would it have helped trust if that amount added during the strike had been put on the table beforehand?
In order to build trust, you need to be transparent. You need to be transparent the entire way, beginning, middle, and end. Building an open and honest relationship from the get-go is really important, and my understanding is the School Committee and Superintendent Nolin worked hard to do that. I would continue to do so, but the relationship can’t begin at the negotiating table. It has to begin from the day someone begins a role on the School Committee, and it has to be ongoing. My understanding is there’s currently a working group for this, and that needs to continue.
We are in a national examination of what DEI means and how it should exist in education. What are your views about it going forward? Whether it’s via the mult-level classroom lens or other, how should or shouldn’t NPS implement what is broadly known as DEI?
To me, equity in public schools means ensuring that every student has the resources, the opportunities, and support they need, and that every kid matters, regardless of what they look like, where they come from, their religion, their sexual orientation, their income, etc. The Newton Public Schools should always be there to help every student reach their potential regardless of these factors. There is a school policy of nondiscrimination on the City of Newton’s website, and it’s the job of School Committee members to ensure the administration is upholding these policies at all times.
In addition to simply not discriminating, what should NPS be proactively doing to help all those different types of students reach their potential?
I think for NPS, making sure that every kid feels and believes that they matter – regardless of what shape, size, sexual orientation, religion, they come from, etc. – is really important, and ultimately, it’s our goal to help them reach their potential. If they need additional support, we need to make sure that have that in order to succeed.
You mentioned sexual orientation. Let’s say, hypothetically, some higher governmental state or federal authority said to NPS, you can no longer have Pride flags in school buildings, or else you will lose some exogenous funding. As a School Committee member, how would you analyze that?
What’s important is what I just said a minute ago, that every kid matters and every kid needs to feel like they matter, and gets the support they need, and reaches their potential. Specific to the request of a flag being taken down, I would advise the School Committee to reach out to our LGBTQ community and involve them in a discussion to understand how they would feel about it. I think also there would have to be a clear understanding of what risk is being threatened. But most importantly, an open dialogue with the LGBTQ community to hear their thoughts on it, their reactions.
Was there any action you observed the current or previous School Committees undertake that you thought to yourself, “ I would have done that differently”?
Hindsight’s always 20-20, but certainly, the time it took us to get our kids back in school after COVID was too long, and we are continuing to feel the ramifications of that.
Is there anything we didn’t cover that you would like to convey to our readers that would give them insight to your candidacy?
One of the things that is on my mind is attendance, both from the standpoints of our students and our teachers. According to the DESE [Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education] website, we have over 25% of our students missing more than 10% of school days. That’s significantly higher than many other districts, and I’m concerned about that, and the reasons for it. It’s an area that we need to dive into to understand why.
Similarly, my understanding is we have a teacher absence rate – at the high school level of about 10% – and we need to understand why. We know teaching is far harder today than it used to be. Are teachers not getting the support or professional education they need? Is it burnout, stress, or is it even the [new high school] schedule? Are changes that we made during COVID causing the absentee rate?
So attendance is something fundamental. I’m concerned about both of those numbers – for students and for teachers. Can [parents] get their kids, or even themselves to the doctor with that schedule? We need to dig into the root cause and understand that, so we can improve upon both our student and teacher absentee rates.
I’d also like to say that I’m a parent who cares deeply about our schools. I’ve seen my two kids go through kindergarten through 12th grade in Newton Public Schools, and I think they got a fine education, but I’m concerned that we need to get back to why every parent moves to the City of Newton.